Tag Archives: vomiting

Czechia, Eastern Europe

Our Eastern European October… part two

Stop number one: Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic

Our long awaited fall vacation began on Thursday, October 1, 2026. The first stop was Karlovy Vary. I chose it after agonizing over a couple of other cities I’d had in mind. I had based our trip around visiting Slovakia, a country I first visited in 1997, but had never really explored in any meaningful way.

Prior to this year, I had only visited Zilina, Slovakia in 1997, because I was meeting a couple of friends there for a train trip through western Europe. One of them was at the university in Zilina, getting training in Information Technology. Although I did get to spend a couple of days in Zilina, I wasn’t really there to do any significant touring. Bill and I did spend a few hours in Bratislava, back in 2015, but again, it wasn’t really much of a proper visit.

Once I had decided to go to Slovakia, I needed to figure out stops that would break up the trip. Slovakia isn’t that close to Germany, if you’re driving. Bill and I also don’t have the stamina we once had. I had originally considered stopping in Gorlitz, which is a German city right on the Polish border, but then I discovered other areas near Gorlitz that I wanted to see. I knew two whole days wouldn’t be long enough to satisfy me if we went there on the way to Slovakia.

That’s when I remembered lovely Karlovy Vary, a spa town that is also known as Carlsbad. Karlovy Vary is in the western Bohemian region of Czechia, but there was a time when it was annexed to Germany. Bill and I had visited Chodovar, a brewery, beer spa, and “wellness land”, for a long weekend back in February 2009.

I remembered venturing out to Karlovy Vary and Plzen on that trip, mainly because Chodovar is located in tiny Chodova Plana, and there wasn’t much to that charming hamlet, back in 2009. They have expanded the resort quite a lot since then, and in 2026, it might be interesting enough to spend the entire time there. But in 2009, we definitely needed daytime excursions. So, one day we went to Karlovy Vary. The other day, we went to Plzen.

In 2018, we visited Plzen again, and discovered garlic soup, as well as a very cool open air museum dedicated to communist era planes! I remember liking Karlovy Vary more than Plzen, back in 2009. Now that we’ve been back to Plzen, I definitely appreciate that city more than I did in 2009. But we were long overdue to see Karlovy Vary again, if only so I could get some pictures and taste the famous spa waters that flow there.

I booked us the Tower Room at the Chateau Cihelny, a bucolic property adjacent to several golf courses, located just outside of the city. Bill and I don’t care about golfing. We like unique properties, especially if they aren’t obviously part of a corporate chain. This hotel had the appearance of offering us a chance at peace and quiet. It also had a wellness area that I found attractive. As it turned out, we never got around to hitting the spa. Aside from the chateau, there is also a less expensive lodging option on the grounds that seemed more geared toward families.

On October 1, 2026, after Bill dropped Charlie and Noyzi off at the Hundepension, Bill and I loaded up the Volvo and headed east toward Czechia. Since Karlovy Vary is relatively close, we didn’t get started on our drive until late morning. I’d say it’s about a four-and-a-half to five hour drive from Wiesbaden. Below are a few photos from the drive.

An example of a play area for kids in a German rest stop.
Nordsee for lunch!
The border
Almost at the border…
Now we’re in Czechia! Notice the different spelling.

We arrived at Chateau Cihelny in the late afternoon. Bill and I were both kind of tired from the drive, and the chateau turned out to be further out than we had anticipated. There is a tiny train stop near the hotel, but it had very limited service. Still, the property was very pretty, so we weren’t too upset about missing the city on the first night. We went into the hotel to check in, where we were met by an affable young man who spoke great English and had a droll sense of humor.

While we were checking in, the guy told us that we’d booked a very special room, but it was going to involve climbing a lot of steps. He was not lying about that! There is no elevator in the Chateau Cilheny, and I had reserved the Tower Room, which is a very unique and interesting room. You might even call it spacious… The room is in the chateau’s “tower”, which makes it different from the other rooms in the hotel.

The Tower Room, pictured below, has a spiral staircase in it. You have to climb those steps to get from the sitting room to the bedroom and bathroom. Bill counted thirty narrow steps. It was a bit of a pain… but again, the room was very unique, and offered a nice balcony overlooking the beautiful grounds. There’s also another spiral staircase in the bedroom, but that just leads to a locked, boarded up window. There is no point in climbing those, unless you just want some extra exercise.

Steps to the bedroom and bathroom.
Huge bathroom. There is a step leading down into the bathroom that tripped Bill at least once.
Sunken tub
Staircase to disappointment
But it did give me a chance to take an aerial view of the bedroom.
View
Door to the balcony
View
Check out the fancy tower
Another view

To even get to the Tower Room, one must climb several long flights of stairs. There’s a bench and sitting area on the second floor, which came in handy for us as we went to our room. It’s definitely a place where you can get a workout, especially if you’re on the third floor, and staying in the Tower Room, which requires even more stair climbing. Who needs a Stairmaster?!

Below are some more photos from the hotel. I thought it was a very tastefully decorated place. I especially liked the art on the walls.

I rested on that bench more than once!

We decided to have dinner at the hotel’s restaurant. That also required a walk down steps, as it’s located in the basement of the chateau. The food and service were very good, and on the first night, they were playing excellent Generation X friendly music. Bill had trout, and I had pork knuckle that was removed from the bone. Along with the pork came delicious, fresh pickles that went down easy… especially with the Pilsner Urquell beer.

This was sooo good…
Bill liked his trout, too.
Apricot filled dumplings with Schmand.
Apple struedel

After dinner, we went to bed. The mattress wasn’t particularly comfortable, but I was tired and drifted off. A couple of hours later, I woke up desperately needing the bathroom. I realized, as I was sitting on the toilet, that I really didn’t feel well. Let’s just say stuff was coming out of both ends, although fortunately not at the same time. I was afraid that maybe I got food poisoning or something, but it turned out that wasn’t the issue.

Bill got up when he heard me vomiting. He asked me if I was okay. I was perfectly fine, once everything was purged. I later looked up pickled vegetables and learned that they can upset the stomach if you aren’t used to them. What a shame! Dinner was delicious, and I truly enjoyed the fresh pickles. I probably should have just tasted them, though, because I think that’s what didn’t agree with me.

I went back to bed and managed to fall back to sleep. The next morning, we enjoyed our first breakfast at Chateau Cilheny, and a trip to the city, where we tasted the water and visited the Becherovka Museum. I’ll write more about that in the next installment.

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East Germany, Eastern Europe

Our fall vacation is now over…

Bill and I got home about 90 minutes ago. We’re both pretty tired and busy with settling in, so I’m not going to try to write about the trip today. I will save that for tomorrow, which is usually the day of the week when I wash the sheets. Since we haven’t been home, and I washed the sheets just before we left, I won’t need to do that chore this week. 😊

This trip was rather long, and it encompassed visits to areas in four countries. Each place we visited was special in its own way. I took a lot of pictures, although we didn’t do a lot of “touristy” stuff. We mainly drank a lot of beer, did a lot of walking, and enjoyed each other’s company.

I think my favorite stop was Krakow, followed closely by Stary Smokovec, but each place was pretty awesome. We had great weather, too, until the tail end of our journey.

The drive home was kind of yucky, especially when we stopped for lunch at a rest stop. It was just beyond the Hessen state line, and the rest stop was one of the weirdest laid out ones I’ve yet encountered in Germany or elsewhere.

When we got out of the car, it was raining… that kind of cold, light, but fast drizzle, that gets you wet in a hurry. I noticed a woman sitting in the car next to ours, wanting to get out of her vehicle. I hurried to close the door, and then Bill and I had to wait for a couple of cars to pass.

By the time we found the front door of the rest stop, we were really wanting to get out of the rain. Unfortunately, it wasn’t as easy as we’d hoped. One could enter the building on either side of the building, and the two entrances were not easy to get to without walking the long way around the building.

The side we happened to be on had a single door, with a sidewalk leading up to it. For some reason, there was a barrier on the opposite side of the walkway from the building, meaning that everyone had to walk in and out of the building in kind of a single file.

As we were heading toward the door, rushing to get out of the cold, drizzly rain, a woman and her daughter were coming out of the building. The girl, who looked to be about nine or ten years old, stopped in front of me and suddenly vomited on the sidewalk.

I took this photo from the table where we had lunch. You can see there’s a barrier that prevents one from walking around slowpokes or vomiters…

She was under the shelter of a roof, but I was standing there in the falling rain, watching her throw up on the sidewalk. Her mom was right behind her, holding her hair. Fortunately, there wasn’t a lot of puke, but the two of them kind of took their time, and blocked the egress into the building. I felt sorry for the girl, but I’m sure my face registered irritation, because I needed to pee, and we were about to have lunch.

The woman and her peaked daughter finally got out of the way, so we could enter the rest stop. But once we were in the building, we encountered a large group of elderly folks. I suddenly realized they must have been on the busses that were parked outside.

To get to the toilets, we had to follow a series of signs, and go down a couple of flights of steps. As we were trying to go down, they were coming back up to the dining room.

Fortunately, there wasn’t a wait for a stall. In fact, an attendant was even cleaning the toilets as I was trying to find one. And these toilets were the self-cleaning kind anyway, which I don’t actually like that much, because the seats are usually still wet from being automatically cleaned whenever I encounter them.

Once we finished “doing our business”, we had to maneuver through more throngs of people having lunch. But then, after we ordered our crummy Burger King sandwiches, the crowd dissipated, and the place was somewhat sedate.

Not the greatest lunch… It was basically all they had besides cold, pre-made sandwiches, which usually have cheese that I don’t like. What a crappy rest stop! But at least it was there.

Unfortunately, the “mess” was still on the sidewalk where the poor queasy lass had left it. I started feeling kind of nauseated myself as we passed it. I was really afraid I was going to sympathy hurl. Fortunately, I managed to get over my disgust. That was a good thing, because I almost lost breakfast at the beginning of our drive home, thanks to a coughing fit.

Anyway… it’s good to be home. I look forward to seeing Noyzi and Charlie in a little while, and writing about the new things we saw and did on this long awaited vacation to Eastern Europe. But… most of all… I look forward to sleeping in my own bed. I really missed my soft bed while we were away. And now that the weather has turned to shit, maybe that will also mean the mosquitoes are done, too!

So… with that, I’m going to close this post. See you tomorrow with my tales from the trip! I promise they won’t be as gross as this one is. 😊

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Uncategorized

Arran’s recovery is a bit rocky…

Poor Arran has had a rough week. A few days ago, after we came home from Heidelberg, he gashed himself after running under a bush with low branches. That encounter led to an hours long ordeal at the Tierklinik Hofheim, which is a really good veterinary hospital near us. He wasn’t that badly hurt, but there were a lot of sick animals that night, and Bill had to wait for them to be treated first.

Bill got to the emergency clinic at 9:30pm and got home at 4:30am, armed with antibiotics and painkillers. Arran had to have five stitches on his left shoulder, right near where he has a lipoma. He tore a big gash through all of his skin layers, so the emergency vet had to remove a flap of skin and debride the wound.

Arran was basically fine on Monday and Tuesday. He was eating, drinking, and demanding his walk. Then yesterday, at about noon, he vomited all over Bill’s side of our bed. Luckily, I managed to push him to the edge, so the mess wasn’t as bad as it could have been. When he had his dinner last night, he threw up again, although he never lost his appetite or his crankiness toward Noyzi.

Bill and I figured maybe the antibiotic was affecting him, since I had read that vomiting and diarrhea are side effects of Kesium, which is what he was taking, along with Metacam for the pain. Then this morning, after an uneventful night, Bill gave Arran a little bit of food. And yes, you guessed it, a couple of hours later, he puked again.

We already had an 8:30am appointment for him to visit the vet to have his stitches checked. Bill took him in and was back home very quickly. I was feeling dread, given that Arran is about 12 years old. But Arran surprised us by romping into the house, obviously feeling great. He did a play bow and smiled at me as he ran into the living room.

The vet gave him an injection of antibiotics, an injection of painkillers, and something for his stomach. It’s obviously all kicked in. Bill says the vet thinks the nausea is caused by the last of the sedation Arran had on Monday morning, exiting his system. I don’t know why it wouldn’t have bothered him on Monday and Tuesday, but hell, I’m not a vet. Anyway, the antibiotic was directly injected into his bloodstream, so it’s not sitting in his stomach. He’s had that drug before and it didn’t bother him. Maybe he’s developed an intolerance.

We’ll bring him back to the vet on Saturday for another shot. Hopefully the stitches can come out a few days after that. The wound seems to be healing nicely.

Meanwhile, Noyzi seems to have a touch of diarrhea today, and it’s raining pretty steadily. He came upstairs at about 4:00am, obviously eager to go outside. Bill let him out and he was quick to do his business. This morning, I see a little residual diarrhea. I’m not sure why he has the runs, but I’m grateful that he came to tell us that he needed to go outside. He’s such a good dog!

This was when I noticed the gash Sunday night.
His “walk dance” on Tuesday.

I suspect it will be a cozy day today, once I do my dreaded and hated Thursday chore of vacuuming.

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Uncategorized

Sud Tyrol and beyond… part nine

After we visited the wood carver, we decided to go back to the hotel. I could have used a swim. It was hot outside. But I also wanted a drink, so we went to the bar and had the bartender make us a round. I had a gin and tonic with a locally produced gin– Edelschwarz Organic Gin. It was served with a blue ice cube. Bill had one a couple of nights prior made with a yellow ice cube. He laughed and said my drink looked like the blue water in a Tidy Bowl… and his… well, it looked like something else that goes in a toilet.

Thursday night’s dinner was the seven course tasting menu. And, as nightmarish as Tuesday’s mushroom debacle was, Thursday night’s dinner was worse, if only because I ended up getting sick. It wasn’t because I drank wine or because I got food poisoning. Again, it’s because I have some aversions to certain foods. I blogged about Thursday’s meal on my main blog, so if you want the dirty details, you can find them here. Suffice to say, it was a struggle to get through the meal. Here are some photos of what we ate.

  • Tidy Bowl! But it tasted good.
  • The dining room reminded me of a cruise ship, complete with funky lighting and, at least on Thursday night, funky music. Most other nights, they played Muzak.
  • Course one… cauliflower cream with cherry tomatoes. It was kind of strong, but not too bad.
  • Course two… mascarpone cheese wrapped with cucumber and served with olive tapenade.
  • The evening’s wine…
  • Course three… Orange ginger soup…
  • Course four… Ravioli with cheese and pesto.
  • Course five… sorbet
  • Course six… Here’s where things went awry. This was veal with asparagus and some kind of earthy sauce…
  • Course seven… Raspberry ice cream with cake and some kind of weird topping that tasted like garlic to me.
  • And chocolates…

I was mostly okay until we got to course six. I try not to eat veal. I can eat veal, but I choose not to. This was served with asparagus and a sauce that tasted very earthy to me. I never even touched the veal. The asparagus, which I am sure was fresh, but was kind of mushy, blended with the sauce, turned my stomach. I almost got sick at the table. I went to the ladies room and managed to calm down my stomach enough to finish the meal. But then, once we got back to the room and I started doing my routine before bed, I knew it was all over. I’m sad to say, that tasting menu meal didn’t stay with me.

I’ve read a lot of reviews of this hotel. Many people really like it. I will say that there were things about the hotel that I liked. I didn’t think the food was terrible, either. But I have definitely had much better and I shouldn’t have thrown up after a tasting menu. Yes, there was booze involved, but that’s not what made me feel so icky. I just don’t think half board is a great idea for me, although I did okay with it at Hotel Kristall.

The next morning, we got up, had our breakfast, loaded up the car, and checked out of the Klein Fein Hotel Anderlahn. I did like the staff very much, and I thought the hotel was stylish and had a nice spa. But I think the management needs to decide if they want to be a family hotel or a spa hotel. Unfortunately, the way it’s laid out, the hotel is not so good for people who don’t have children, especially in the summer when the windows have to be kept open. Still, the staff presented us with a bottle of prosecco and some red wine salt after Bill settled the bill with them. He also contributed a tip to the piggy bank, the contents of which are divided up and shared among the staff each month.

On our way out of Italy, we stopped at Speck World, a shop run by Moser, a company that makes and sells pork products. They have a processing plant in Sud Tyrol. I didn’t realize it when we stopped in, but their shop also has a cool little museum and a public restroom.

  • All of your favorite bacon and sausages.
  • And other gourmet treats.
  • They even have a swine museum…
  • Even the Iceman likes it.
  • I thought this was an interesting bit of history.
  • Hallo!

Once we picked up some salami to take home, we stopped in another little shop where a bunch of guys were sitting around drinking beer. They were also selling Moser pork products, so we bought olive oil and wine.

  • There’s a pretty brook that passes the grape vines.
  • This little shop had pork products, cheeses, beer, wine, olive oil, and lots of guys drinking in the morning.
  • The scenery was a real treat as we made our way toward Switzerland.
  • I saw places I’d like to visit in the future.
  • Like here…

Our drive to Switzerland was pretty interesting. Back in 2009, when I was looking for a place for us to visit, I strongly considered booking us a room near the Reschensee (Lake Reschen). This is a manmade lake near Reschen Pass that dates from 1950. Prior to 1950, the area was known as Graun im Vinschgau. It once was a normal town in northern Italy, until the powers that be decided to flood it by building the lake. All that remains visible of the former town is an abandoned church tower, which dates from the 14th century. We ended up passing it as we made our way north. It’s said that on some nights, one can hear the church bells ring, even though they were removed the week before the town was flooded.

  • There’s a naked male statue between these horses.
  • We should have stopped…
  • So I could have…
  • gotten a better picture.

This little town on the Reschensee is very close to both Austria and Switzerland. However, our route took us into Austria for quite a ways. I was surprised how long we drove in Austria before we got to St. Gallen. More on that in the next post.

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Baden-Württemberg, holidays

So much for Labor Day weekend…

I have been itching to get out of town for awhile now.  Thanks to Bill’s new job, he no longer has any leave accrued.  We will be leaving next weekend for a vacation in Scotland and Northern Ireland, but Bill will be “in the hole” for awhile until he makes up the days he’s going to take off.

We were thinking we might sneak away this weekend, since Monday is a holiday.  Then our RAV 4 started having some problems and Bill had to get them fixed.  The car is running decently now, but it wasn’t fixed in time to book anything for the weekend.

I thought maybe we’d go to the Weinfest in Stuttgart this weekend, but our dog Arran has been vomiting.  He doesn’t seem really sick, but I don’t want to leave him alone.  So I’ve been sitting here binge watching ER on iTunes, hoping nothing shitty happens before Saturday.

Maybe tomorrow we’ll get to go somewhere fun so I can blog.

We did manage to visit Agais in Entringen on Friday night.  If you’ve been reading this blog, you may know that Agais is kind of a special place for Bill and me.  We used to go there often when we lived in Germany the first time.  The proprietor, a man we jokingly call The Mad Scientist (but his name is actually John), was delighted to see us.  He thought we’d moved back to the States and was happy when we told him we won’t be moving for at least a year.

Bill looking plucky…

Flat bread vorspeisen…

I decided to have schnitzel with t’zatziki.  It was the first time I ever had schnitzel at Agais.  It was pretty good.  Not too large.  I still didn’t finish it, though.

Bill went with the usual gyros with baked potatoes.

It was nice to see the Mad Scientist and his wife again.  I wish we could have gone somewhere else this weekend, but I hope to salvage tomorrow… or, at least miss a trip to the vet.  We’ll make up for this week’s dearth of travel blogging after our trip to the U.K.

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